


lunar attraction

by twilight___renaissance



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Air Temple Island, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Badass Lin Beifong, Color Blindness, During Canon, F/M, It Gets Better, Korra & Mako Friendship, Lin Beifong-centric, May/December Relationship, Moral Dilemmas, Older Woman/Younger Man, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Rare Pairings, Republic City, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26709604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilight___renaissance/pseuds/twilight___renaissance
Summary: soulmate au's are one of my favorite things to write so here's another one
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Bolin/Opal (Avatar), Korra/Asami Sato, Lin Beifong/Mako, Pema/Tenzin (Avatar)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 70





	1. new flesh

The world, at least for Lin Beifong and the other unfortunate souls who had yet to find their soulmate, existed in a series of grey and varying shades of it. Had been her entire life and it would probably remain that way till the day she died. The Republic City Police Chief didn't have time to worry about her soulmate, let alone set time aside to try and find the poor bastard. They must have seriously pissed off the spirits in their past life to get saddled with her as their soulmate; someone who gave up on the whole notion decades ago. The type of love that her Aunt Katara and Uncle Aang shared was simply something not destined for her, which was fine. The infectious happiness that she heard came from meeting your soulmate made her want to vomit, the world was too cruel for something like that to last long. 

Lin sighed. 

It had been a long day, with loads of paperwork left over, so there was no reason why she should be thinking of something as ludicrous as soulmates. As beneficial as seeing the world in color may be, that wouldn't help her get her job done any more efficiently so it doesn't bother her in the slightest. She shakes her head, trying to rid her head of these pointless thoughts, as she sits down at her desk. The stack of paperwork had seemingly doubled throughout the day, meaning that she undoubtably would be staying late tonight. Lin grabs the top file and opens in, propping her feet up on her desk. 

After not even an entire ten minutes of looking over the file, Lin could sense someone approaching her office door. She flicked her wrist and sent her metal cable through the air and used it to open the door. Saikhan, her right-hand man and police captain, walks into her office and closes the door behind himself. He has a coffee in each hand, one that he sets down on her desk when he approaches her. 

"Alright, what do you want?" Lin asks, grabbing the coffee with a thankful expression on her face.

He only brought her coffee when he needed her to do something for him so she knew that it wasn't out of the kindness of his heart. Saikhan chuckles before taking a sip of his coffee. Lin took a sip of her own before he started speaking, knowing that it would be highly unlikely that she would be able to finish it while it was still warm.

"One of the new beat cops is having a hard time down in booking. Some punk triad kids are messing with him" Saikhan says, looking at Lin over his coffee. 

"Saikhan, you can easily handle that. Why are you bothering me about it?" Lin asked with an arched brow.

He knew how much she hated when people wasted her time so why was he now doing it as if it's no big deal? He can easily handle some punk kids down in booking, she shouldn't have to do his job on top of her own. 

"They tried to use bending to escape their holding cell when they're only in there for petty theft. And the newbie wants to speak with you, he wants to press assault charges on them" Saikhan says with a groan. 

Lin groaned but stood, leaving her coffee on her desk, and Saikhan followed shortly behind her. The pair exited her office and started the walk down to the holding cells. 

"How many of these kids are there?" She asks.

"I think they rounded up five. Caught them in the middle of a robbery at Central City Station or something like that" He explains.

"And why does our guy want to press charges?" Lin asks.

"Says he got hit in the face with a pebble when one of them tried to use earthbending to break out" Saikhan explained.

"That'll never hold up in court" She says with a sigh.

"Yeah, I don't think he even got hit with anything, probably just wants an interesting work story " He says with a chuckle. 

Lin rolls her eyes at Saikhan's comment. She wouldn't put it past some kids working with one of the Triads to try and use bending to break out and accidentally hit an officer with some rock but also wouldn't put it past a beat cop to make up a story to make the day go by just a little bit faster. 

The rest of the walk down to the holding cells was silent, apart from the normal noises of the police station around them. Lin sees the beat cop in question eagerly stand when he sees her and Saikhan approaching. He looks young and has a small, recent looking cut underneath his eye. Lin can hear the group of kids speaking in one of the holding cells further down the hall but doesn't bother to go and look for which cell that the sounds were coming from. 

"Chief, Captain, I'm so thankful that you came" The cop says excitedly. 

"What exactly would you like to speak to me about?" Lin asks, getting straight to the point.

"O-of course! Those Triad hooligans need to be charged with something more than petty theft! They tried to break out and cut my face in the process" The cop nearly shrieked, pointing to the cut underneath his eye. 

"Again, I don't see how this warrants my involvement. You could have easily brought this to the detective who brought them in" Lin says flatly. 

"T-t-h-e....." The cop stutters before trailing off. 

"That's exactly what I thought" Lin says, crossing her arms in front of her chest. 

Lin turns around and starts to leave the holding cell area.

"Wait! D-Don't you want to speak to those punks yourself?" The cop nearly yells.

"Lao Rehi, I think you've already done enough to dig yourself a hole" Saikhan says. 

Lin sighs but turns around and faces Saikhan and the cop, Lao Rehi, again. If speaking to those kids will get this guy off of her back and allow her to go back to the privacy of her office, she'll chit chat for as long as he wants. Lin walks down the corridor to the holding cell where she heard the kids speaking beforehand. There's five of them in the cell, all looking to be in their mid to late teens. Two of them were sitting in the corner farthest away from the others, seemingly trying to mind their own business. 

"And what do you have to say for yourselves?" Lin asks the group. 

A kid with Earth Kingdom features in the front of the group sneers at her. 

"We don't speak to cops" He says before spitting down at her feet. 

She scowls. If this is what all kids are like then the world will be knocked out of balance within the next few years, most definitely. 

"Knock it off, that's not going to get us out of here any faster" One of the boys in the corner says. 

The boy, probably the oldest in the group, looks over at Lin and their eyes lock. 

It started with the boy's eyes; the grey that was there was slowly replaced by something that wasn't grey and Lin didn't know what was happening for a moment. Within the next few seconds, all of the greys were gone from her vision and it was replaced by colors that she didn't know the name of and didn't know how to describe. She turned away from the holding cell when the bile rose in her throat; her soulmate couldn't possibly be this _child_. A warmth she didn't recognize settled deep in her stomach; the instinctive joy for finding one's soulmate fighting against the pure disgust raging in Lin's mind. She could see Saikhan looking at her strangely out of the corner of her eye so she did what came first to her mind. 

She fled. 

"You can handle it from here" Lin hears herself say to Saikhan as she nearly runs into him. 

She ignored what he said afterward, all she wanted to do was get as far away from that holding cell as humanely possible. Lin had known the interior of the police station like the back of her hand for decades but now she hardly knew where she was going. Her head pounded from all of the colors she was seeing, colors that she had gone decades without seeing and now didn't even know any of the names of. She somehow made it to the bathroom by the time the vomit came up. She hunched over a toilet, careful enough to close and lock the stall door behind herself, and allowed for it to all come out. Tears managed to start falling without her noticing and soon enough she was just crying over the toilet bowl, making sure she wasn't loud enough to where she'd be heard outside of this room. 

Why?

What had she done to anger the spirits in such a way? She must have been one awful person in her past life to be given this. There's no way that her soulmate could be that literal _child_ , the spirits must just be playing a cruel, cruel joke on her. Lin wiped her eyes and grabbed a few squares of toilet paper to wipe her mouth; she'd have to act as if everything was fine and that nothing monumental had happened. Lin was no monster, she wouldn't entertain the idea of even speaking to her soulmate until he was of age. The thought drove more bile up her throat but Lin forced it down. 

She was no monster nor would she allow herself to become one. 


	2. epiphany

Mako. 

His name was Mako, Lin had found out. 

She pointedly avoided the holding cells following that day, not wanting to chance possibly running into him again. Lin had decided that she simply couldn't contact him in any shape or form, that he would have to search her out of his own volition. He was a _child_ , only fifteen years of age, and she wouldn't put herself in a position where she may do something that she would regret. Her only duty was to the city, not to some boy young enough to be her own son. 

So she buried herself deeper and deeper into her work, her near nonexistent life outside of the police station vanishing entirely over the next few years. Crime, outside of things related to the constantly beefing Triads and the steadily rising Anti-Bending 'revolution', were at an all-time low for Republic City. Her officers worked nearly as hard as she did, not that she would force them to spend their nights away from their families like how she stayed in the safety of her office, and her city was looking to be in decent shape for once. 

Until the Avatar, a teenage girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra arrived in Republic City. Lin didn't have time to deal with a half-fledged Avatar, let alone one who seemed dead set on causing trouble in the streets whenever she felt like it, she had enough issues as it was. Tenzin had taken responsibility for the girl and whisked her away to Air Temple Island, hopefully keeping her out of Lin's hair for a while even though she was originally supposed to go back to the South Pole. 

So, what Lin was doing at a gala being thrown in _Avatar Korra's_ honor was completely beyond her. Councilman Tarrlok had somehow convinced her into going, saying something about how he needed the best of the best there to make sure that all of Republic City's important citizens would be safe. Lin had brought a few other officers with her to help ensure the safety of all of the guests. All of the said guests were dressed to the nines, mingling with each other and paying Lin and her officers no mind, and the sound of so many people taking was starting to give her a migraine. The flashy colors of the outfits of Republic City's finest hurt her eyes, not having seen that much color in months. The police station was simple and existed purely in different shades of black and grey, something Lin had come to prefer over the years; the fewer reminders about her soulmate the better. 

Maybe she'd be able to escape outside for a few moments. 

Lin surveyed her surroundings as she made her way towards the back door, not wanting to deal with the mob of paparazzi at the front of the building when her heart leaped into her throat. A few feet away from her stood the Avatar, Tarrlok, Hiroshi Sato, a girl around the Avatar's age who must be Hiroshi's daughter Asami, a boy she vaguely recognized, and _Mako_. Asami and the Avatar were looking at each other with gobsmacked expressions that even Lin could read from how far away she was from them; they were each other's soulmates. Her chest tightened when Mako looked over at her, his facial expression becoming unreadable. He was taller than she remembered, seemingly a head taller than her anyways, and was wearing a suit that almost matched the other boy's. 

She quickly looked away, trying to ignore the feelings bubbling up in her chest. Just as she was about to move to walk away, Tarrlok looked over at her and raised his arm in a beckoning motion. Lin bit back a groan as she hesitantly approached the group, feeling Mako's eyes on her the entire time. 

"Chief Beifong, I believe you and Avatar Korra have already met" Tarrlok said. 

Lin put on the best scowl she could muster before speaking. 

"Just because the city's throwing you this big to-do, don't think you're something special. You've done absolutely nothing to deserve this" Lin spat before hastily separating herself from the group. 

She stormed away towards the backdoor, her breath coming in short bursts. After all these years of perfect avoidance, she'd have to face him at something like this? Lin nearly threw herself through the door when she reached it, the cold night air hitting her like a slap on the face. She leaned against the building, closing her eyes, and tried to focus on her breathing. After a few moments, she sensed someone standing on the other side of the door and they seemed to be hesitating.

Lin groaned and opened her eyes. 

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and slightly moved away from the door just as it opened. The absolute last person on earth she wanted to see stepped outside and quickly closed the door behind themselves, looking at her with a still unreadable expression on his face. Just what exactly does he think that he's doing? Through her seismic sense, she could feel his heart beating a mile a minute, perfectly mirroring hers. 

His golden eyes reached her emerald ones before she spoke. 

"What is it that you want, kid?" She asked bluntly.

"T-to speak with you" Mako stuttered, nervously scratching at the back of his neck. 

"We have nothing to speak about" Lin says, trying to keep all emotion off of her face.

That was a bald-faced lie and they both knew it. They could stand there all night and not have even reached the surface of all the things that they should speak about. But Lin had made it this far and couldn't risk it all by starting to get invested in this kid. 

"So soulmates mean nothing to you?" Mako asks, staring Lin straight in the eyes as he did. 

Lin looked up at him, speechless, for a moment. Ever since that day in the holding cells, her life had been upside down so she couldn't say that it didn't matter. Colors were the most beautiful things that Lin has ever experienced and that wouldn't be possible without him. Then her speechlessness dissolved as she looked at him and saw just how young he really was. Even if he was technically considered an adult, that didn't erase the near thirty-year age-gap between them, it didn't lessen Lin's internal disgust towards herself. 

"Be quiet, someone might hear you" Lin hissed, looking around them. 

The area around them was completely deserted, not another soul in sight, but who knows who might be listening? He was frowning when Lin's gaze returned to him but his face softened after a moment. He sighed before speaking again.

"I haven't stopped thinking about you ever since that day. Just....just give me a chance, please" Mako pleaded, looking at Lin with the most sincere expression she's ever seen. 

Her heart flutters in her chest, causing her to scowl. Mako's face slowly falls, thinking that her scowl meant that she had had it with him. He looked as if he was about to either cry or storm off, something about that look on his face made Lin scowl even more. 

"Fine! Just stop looking like that and don't mention this to anyone. Got it?" Lin asked sternly, her tone and answer clearly catching Mako off guard. 

He eagerly nodded his head, a wide grin slowly taking form on his face. If Lin hadn't schooled her face into a neutral expression, she'd be wearing a matching smile. She'd better get back inside soon, needing to ensure that her officers were doing their jobs and that everything was still going smoothly.

"I need to get back inside" Lin says, stepping around Mako to get to the door. 

Seemingly without thinking, Mako reaches out and grabs her wrist so she couldn't leave just yet. After standing there for a moment in stunned silence, Lin turned her head to look at Mako, who quickly let go of her wrist with a blush steadily rising on his cheeks. 

"Come to the next Pro-Bending match. I have a ticket that you can have" Mako says, looking down at his feet when he does. 

Lin looked at him for a moment, not knowing what to say. The entirety of Republic City knew that Mako played for the Fire Ferrets and that they had made it to the Pro-Bending championship. Lin hadn't been to a match in years, probably not since she was right around Makos' age, so it'd be a shock for anyone who knew her to see her there. But she didn't want to face whatever look Mako would give her if she turned the invitation down.

"I'll try my best to make it" Lin says.

Mako looked up at her and smiled, causing a warm feeling to spread in Lin's chest. A feeling that she was terrified of and that she only felt when she was around him.


	3. champions

If you had asked Lin six months ago if she'd ever go to a Pro Bending match again she would have laughed in your face and told you to get lost. But now, at the request of a boy she hardly knew, she was sitting in the stands of the Pro Bending Arena, eagerly waiting for the next match to start. The arena was packed with shouting fans, even though the first match hadn't even started yet, and Lin could feel herself starting to get a migraine. She could barely hear the announcer over the sounds of the crowd but she could see the teams being brought over to the playing field, one at a time. 

It still baffled Lin that she had agreed to Mako's proposal to come to the match tonight. There was no real reason as to why she was here, other than her not wanting to see Mako disappointed if she were to have said no to his offer. She wasn't a huge fan of the sport and she didn't know the next time she'd even be able to speak to him so it didn't seem to matter if she came to the match or not. She had grabbed a seat close to the exit, knowing that she wouldn't stick around for any longer than she had to. 

Her eyes were drawn to the playing field when a light shone down as one of the teams were being brought over to it.

"Introducing our first team, the Future Industries Fire Ferrets!" The announcer boomed into the microphone. 

The newbie team waved out at the crowd, causing it to erupt into applause. Lin grimaced at the increase in volume around her but, for a split second, she found herself wanting to clap and cheer for them along with the rest of the fans. Even at their distance, Lin could somehow tell that Mako was scanning the crowd for someone, for _her_. It took him a few seconds but, when he finally spotted her, she could see a smile erupt on his face and he waved jovially in her general direction. She rolled her eyes at him and refused to wave back, refusing to draw any unneeded attention to herself. 

"And their opponents, the Red Sands Rabbaroos!" 

Lin looked over at the other team, mentally noting that they got far less applause from the audience than the Fire Ferrets. She hadn't heard about this team before but she also hadn't listened in or watched a match in years, she only knew about the Fire Ferrets because the guys down at the station always raved about them. And, against her better judgment, she'd kept a loose eye on Mako whenever she could. She hated herself for it when she first started, only a few months after their first meeting, but something deep down inside of her just couldn't leave well enough alone. Maybe it was because of some obligation she felt towards him due to their circumstances or maybe she just wanted to make sure their paths wouldn't cross in the near future or maybe a little bit of both. 

As the match began, Lin couldn't help but solely focus on Mako. The bending displayed by Pro Bending players had always been something that interested her, it was a complete modernization of all three elements in a way that was unique to the arena and Republic City itself. The Avatar and Mako's brother, Bolin, were no slouches either and their performances in the match impressed Lin, which was something that didn't typically happen. They worked like a well-oiled machine, more like veterans of the sport rather than the rookies that they are. 

~*~

The Fire Ferrets won the match, furthering their spot in the championship tournament. The foreign feeling of pride arose in Lin, something she desperately tried to shut down but it simply wouldn't subside. The other fans in the arena were starting to clear out when Lin decided it was time for her to leave; she told Mako that she would attend the match, nothing more nothing less. She kept her head down as she followed other fans to the exit of the building. 

As she was walking, a deep seed of unfamiliar emotion began to settle in the pit of her stomach. Mako hadn't left her thoughts ever since he asked her to attend the match, as much as she tried to repress them. There could be no future between the two of them, she's thirty years his senior and he has so much life to live without her there. The spirits must be punishing her for something she did in her previous life by making him her soulmate, no, they must be punishing him for something by saddling him with her. Her pace slowed as her thoughts took over for a moment, she groaned before returning to her previous pace. 

There were two distinct doorways on either side of the hall that Lin and the rest of the departing fans were walking down other than the exit that they were quickly approaching. As Lin walked past one of the open doorways, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. Her head whipped around to look at who had grabbed her once she ripped her arm out of their grip, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. 

Mako stood there with a shy look on his face, out of his Pro Bending gear and in his normal street clothes. He had pulled them into a small room with what looked like extra gym equipment and gear for the Pro Benders. She looked up at him with a slight frown on her face, was that completely necessary? If he wanted to speak with her he didn't need to drag her to a slightly more glamorized closet. 

"What?" Lin asked after Mako was silent for a moment.

"I..uh didn't think you were gonna come" Mako says, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. 

"Well you asked nicely" Lin said sarcastically. 

Mako gave her a slightly pointed look before responding. 

"I think you just wanted to see me in action" Mako said boldly, taking a step closer to her. 

Lin looked up at him in stunned silence, heat rising to her neck and ears. He looked at her with a smug expression on his face, as if her reaction proved something to him or the both of them. 

"Listen, kid, this simply can't happen" Lin says after she regains her bearings. 

"This? We're soulmates Lin, as much as you don't want to accept it, the spirits created us for each other" Mako says, looking at Lin with an unreadable expression on his face. 

Lin clenches her jaw. How could he be so naive? Being soulmates doesn't automatically ensure a relationship or a good one to boot. The world wasn't for black and white decisions such as that. 

"Regardless of that, the world doesn't work like that. You'd be better off forgetting about me and finding someone your own age" Lin says. 

"How am I supposed to do that when you're all I think about?" Mako asks honestly, his eyes blazing with emotion. 

Lin opened her mouth to respond but quickly closed it, not knowing what to say to Mako's confession. Whenever thoughts of him flooded her mind, Lin fought to repress them more than she would like but he clouds her mind the majority of the time. The only other thing she'd ever thought about this much in her entire life is her job and he was beginning to distract her from even that. 

The silence between the two of them allowed them both to hear the doorknob of the door begin to turn. They both turned around when the door opened and Mako's brother, Bolin, stuck his head in. The door slowly swung open to reveal the Avatar and Asami Sato standing behind Bolin, their hands clasped together. 

"Uh....is this a bad time?" Bolin asked, looking between Mako and Lin. 

"No, we're done here" Lin says, not missing the hurt that quickly flashed in Mako's eyes.

Without looking back, Lin quickly pushed past Bolin, Korra, and Asami and practically sprinted out of the building. 

Mako needs to understand that, regardless of their own feelings and soulmate situation, they could never be and he'll be better off without her in his life. 


	4. comfortably numb

Lin Beifong had never thought of herself as a sentimental woman, nor did nearly anyone else she'd ever met, and she wasn't going to start being one now. She had a reputation to uphold, of course, so she couldn't admit to herself that seeing Mako hurt because of something she said struck something deep down in her. He was just some kid that was getting screwed over by having her as his soulmate. Her mind wouldn't, or rather couldn't, stop replaying that look in his eyes, regardless of what she was doing or what she tried to think about instead. 

The current uprising of Amon and his Equalists was a good distraction as any or would have been if they weren't planning on attacking the Pro Bending Arena where Mako nearly always was. She, stupidly, had agreed with him and Korra that the Council should leave the arena open for the Pro Bending Tournament. Amon had planned for this decision and had attacked the arena anyway, effectively launching a war against the benders of Republic City. Lin should have known that it was best to go with the council's judgment, that was their job after all, instead of trying to prove something both to herself and to them. 

The Equalists had beaten them, Amon had taken away the bending of three of the most prominent Pro Benders in the city, and had effectively launched a war. The council would, most likely, call for her resignation because of what happened at the arena and she can't exactly blame them; the attack happened on her watch when she promised that nothing of the sort would take place. A small and selfish part of her was glad that Mako wasn't one of the three to lose their bending but she quickly pushed those thoughts out of her mind. Now wasn't the time to focus her thoughts on him, much more important things were at play. She couldn't allow herself to get distracted, not when the city was at war with one of the, potentially, most dangerous people on the planet. 

Lin sighed. 

She took a deep breath before looking around her office. She'd returned to the police station following the attack on the Pro Bending Arena, needing to write up a report on it and not trusting one of her officers enough to effectively get the job done. It was well past midnight at that point and the station was basically deserted, the night shift officers either out trying to track down leads on the Equalists or working silently at their desks. The report had been completed hours ago but Lin couldn't bring herself to just leave it on her desk for the following day and go home. The confines of her office allowed her to merely exist in silence, not that her apartment would be any different, and she didn't have to face anyone following the department's defeat. 

Lin rubs her eyes with the palm of her hands, trying to rid herself of her complete and utter exhaustion. She wasn't as young as she once was and the fight at the arena took a lot more out of her than she'd like. A familiar ache had wound its way into her bones, one that made her want to remain in her chair for the rest of the night instead of getting up and returning home. Lin grits her teeth and rises to her feet, closing the folder that the new file was now residing in. She flicks the lamp on her desk off and pulls her jacket off the back of her chair, swiftly pulling it on as she approaches the door to her office.

The desks outside of her office are all but abandoned, the other officers either out in the city or somewhere else in the station. Lin silently walks through the station, appreciating the fact that she hasn't run into anyone. Not that she didn't like her officers, that wasn't it at all, they're practically her family, but she needed more time to just think. However, when she reached the lobby, her silence was interrupted.

Sitting on one of the benches closest to the door is Mako.

His glance shoots over to her when she gets within fifteen feet of him, resulting in him nearly jumping up off of the bench and over to her. The closer he got to her, the more apparent the bags under his eyes become. How long had he been sitting there? Lin looks around the room to make sure that they were alone, which they were, before speaking to him. Did he forget all about the last time that they spoke?

"What are you doing here?" Lin asks as Mako comes to a stop a few inches away from her. 

"I wanted to see you" Mako says, looking down at Lin with an honest look on his face. 

"We need to go outside if you're gonna keep saying shit like that" Lin grumbles, walking around Mako and towards the door. 

Lin could hear Mako turn around and follow closely behind her, like a lovesick puppy. They exit the police station together, Lin mentally notes to tell him off from trying to visit her at work in the future, and walk side-by-side down the street. Why had he actually waited for her? Surely his brother would be worried about him if he was out and about into the early hours of the morning, especially after what had just happened at the arena. 

"What did you actually want, Mako?" Lin asks, keeping her sights on the sidewalk in front of them and not on him. 

She can feel his eyes on her as they walked before he responded. 

"I wanted to make sure that you were okay" Mako says bluntly. 

"Why wouldn't I be?" Lin snapped.

"I don't know, maybe because the Equalists attacked the arena only a few hours ago and you fought against them?" Mako asked back, his temper rising. 

Lin looked up at him and he was looking ahead of them, clearly avoiding her gaze. His fists were clenched at his sides and it looked like he was holding back from saying more of how he was feeling. Lin sighed, she shouldn't care so much about how he was feeling and she shouldn't want him to be completely honest with her. All she should want is for him to find someone better for him than she would ever be. 

"I'm fine, Mako, I was just doing my job" Lin says after a moment's hesitation. 

Mako sighs and, out of the corner of her eye, Lin sees him slowly nod his head. They walk silently after that, neither of them knowing exactly what to say or how to say it. As they keep walking, Lin wonders how far he's going to go with her. He couldn't possibly think that she'd allow him into her apartment? If people weren't spreading some sort of rumor about them now they definitely would start if anyone caught wind of that. 

"Won't your brother be worried? If you stay out late?" Lin asks, wanting him to explain himself. 

They were getting close to her apartment, too close without him even explaining his intentions for her liking. 

"Bolin's a heavy sleeper, he'll be alright for a few hours without me there" Mako replies vaguely. 

Lin forced herself not to groan, how could he be so vague? Maybe he wanted her to ask him to be more specific or maybe he just didn't have anything planned? Is he not even going to ask her where they're going? 

They turn onto the street where Lin's apartment is when they spot some people twenty or so feet down the road from them. Lin instantly recognizes them as some of the night shift police officers, resulting in her quickly turning around and walking back the way that she and Mako came. Confused, Mako follows after her but quickly questions her. 

"Did you forget something? Why are we turning around?" Mako asks, most likely loud enough for the officers to vaguely hear him. 

"Shhh! I can't be seen out with you by some of my officers" Lin says in a harsh whisper. 

"Why not?" Mako asks almost immediately. 

Lin groaned. 

"Because the chief of police walking around the city with a teenager late at night is the perfect fuel for a career-ending rumor, Mako" Lin practically snaps at him. 

"I'm an adult, Lin, and who gives a shit about what other people say?" Mako snaps back at her. 

Looking quickly around, seeing that the night shift officers were slowly gaining on them but also seemed to be ignoring them, Lin pulls Mako by the arm into the alleyway closest to them. Luckily, the homeless population of the city avoided these streets because of the high police concentration so the alley was completely deserted apart from the two of them. Lin drags Mako far enough into the alley where she knows that the other officers won't be able to see them before she releases Mako from her grip, her hand falling back to her side with him looking at her with a confused expression on his face. 

"I do. Everything I've ever done has been scrutinized by the public and I don't wish that upon you" Lin says, recalling the newspaper headlines following her and Tenzin's breakup. 

Ever since she was born Lin has dealt with the general population's scrutiny purely because she was Toph Beifong's daughter. That scrutiny only got worse once she joined the force, especially during her relationship with Tenzin, and that type of pressure wasn't something she wanted to pass off onto someone else. Everyone always had a say about something, whether that be on her current hairstyle or the people she's interacted with once, and not all of those things were things that should be said in public. 

"You're my soulmate, why should I care what people say about that?" Mako asks.

"Be quiet with that! You don't' know who might be listening" Lin growled at him. 

"Are you that embarrassed? That we're soul-" Mako starts before Lin clamps her hand down over his mouth. 

She could hear the night shift officers approaching the alleyway, the three of them sounding like a group of rambunctious drunks as they got closer and closer. Mako's lips were warm against her hand, distracting her from her current priority of making sure that the officers passed before they spoke again. After what felt like hours, the officers pass by the alley without a second glance and Lin drops her hand from Mako's mouth. 

"What the fuck was that?" Mako asks almost immediately. 

"You were being too goddamn loud. I'm embarrassed for you, not for me" Lin answers honestly. 

"What?" Mako asks, seemingly confused by what Lin said. 

"You should have a.....someone your own age, you shouldn't be saddled with me" Lin says, pointedly avoiding meeting his gaze. 

Mako chuckles, gaining a confused look from the older woman. He rolled his eyes before walking closer to her, Lin indistinctively stepping back. With a deep breath, Mako pulls Lin into a hug. She reaches her hands up to push him away before sighing and wrapping her arms around him. The warmth in her body and soul was nearly impossible to describe, almost as if she had an internal heater that had been kicked on when he touched her. 

"Your age doesn't matter to me, Lin, I'm just lucky to have you" Mako says, resting his chin on the top of her head. 

The genuineness in his voice almost brought tears to Lin's eyes, not that she would ever admit that to him, but all she managed to do was nod her head against his chest. A small voice in her brain was screaming to let him go and just leave and never speak to him again, that nothing good could ever come from this, but Lin quickly pushed it down. Most people anxiously wait for the day where they meet their soulmate, Lin did for a while too when she was young, and she'd been turning him away every chance she could. Maybe they could actually try and make something work. 

Maybe. 


End file.
